Carpe Diem Haiku Kai is the place to be if you like to write and share Japanese poetry forms like haiku and tanka. It’s a warmhearted family of haiku poets created by Chèvrefeuille, a Dutch haiku poet. Japanese poetry is the poetry of nature and it gives an impression of a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water. ++ ALL WORKS PUBLISHED ARE COPYRIGHTED AND THE RIGHTS BELONG TO THE AUTHORS ++ !!! Anonymous comments will be seen as SPAM !!!

Monday, October 21, 2013

Carpe Diem #328, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Another day in haiku paradise Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, and as we started two days ago with exploring the Seven Ancient World Wonders with the Pyramid of Giza, we now will visit The Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

The hanging
gardens of Babylon are a quite mysterious wonder. Indeed, no Babylonian text
describing them have been found. We don't even know the destruction date of
this wonder. Maybe this is just a product of Greeks imagination ?

The gardens were located on
east the bank of the river Euphrates, in the city of Babylon (50 km from
Bagdad) and may have been built in 600 BC. No Greek historian have seen them,
it just consists in stories told by soldats, which is a quite doubtful source
of informations.

According
to the legend king Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 BC) would have made build the
famous hanging gardens of Babylon for his wife Sémiramis to remind her the
vegetation of the moutains from her natal country : Media (actual Iran).

These
gardens were composed of several floors, each was a terrace of 120 m² supported
by vaults and pillars of brick. An immense staircase, made of marble, connected
the terraces, where water was brought from the river Euphrates by a system of
hydraulic screws. It was a real botanical garden where was cultivated plants
and trees of Mesopotamia and of Media. On the first eight meters height terrace
were planted big trees : plane trees, palm trees - date palms, pines and
cedars. On the second thirteen meters height terrace were located the cypresses
and quantity of fruit trees. And even higher, on the two last terraces, less
vast than the others, we could find the anemones and the tulips, the lilies and
the irises… without forgetting the roses, so appreciated from the beautiful Sémiramis.

There is evidence that these Hanging Gardens were situated in Nineveh and not in actual Babylon. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are likely a legend, but a nice one.

ancient stories told - soldiers' fantasy came truedesert garden

desert gardeneyecatcher of Babylon -hidden wisdom

hidden wisdomancient knowledge for gardeninghanging baskets

Well ... have fun with this new episode of Carpe Diem's daily haiku meme ... be inspired and share your haiku with our haiku-family here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.This prompt will stay on 'til October 23th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our new episode, Statue of Zeus at Olympia, later on today around 7.00 PM (CET).

!! The Hanging Gardens of Babylon is open for your submissions at 7.00 PM (CET) !!

Basho (1644-1694) once said:

[...] “When composing a verse let there not be a hair's breath separating your mind from what you write; composition of a poem must be done in an instant, like a woodcutter felling a huge tree or a swordsman leaping at a dangerous enemy.” [...]

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IMPROMPTU VERSE

Sometimes a haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form comes in mind just in one eye-blink. Those poems I call Impromptu-verses. Here I will publish these Impromptu-verses. Today's Impromptu verse: (11)

fragile beautyclimbing against the fencemoonflower straightenswith her snow white blossomto the Summer moon

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Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Carpe Diem is the place to be if you like to write and share haiku (or another Japanese poetry form like e.g. tanka). It's a family of haiku loving poets.Japanese poetry is known as the impression of a short moment, say a heartbeat or an eye-blink, in which nature plays an important role.It's free to participate in Carpe Diem. By participating in Carpe Diem, you agree with the use of your work in the exclusive e-book series of Carpe Diem.Of course your work will be credited as Carpe Diem always does. However all the texts and works at Carpe Diem are copyrighted and the rights belong to the authors.

March 20th 2016

Chèvrefeuille, your host

PS. Of course it is possible that you don't want to have your work published in our exclusive series of CDHK e-books. Please let me know that by sending an e-mail to our e-mail address carpediemhaikukai@gmail.com